U.S. dollar declines on mixed data

The U.S. dollar fell on Thursday as economic data from the country came out mixed.

U.S. new orders for manufactured durable goods in April increased 7.7 billion U.S. dollars, or 3.4 percent, to 235.9 billion dollars, the Commerce Department reported Thursday. This increase, up three of the last four months, followed a 1.9 percent March increase.

But non-defense capital goods orders excluding aircraft, a closely-watched indicator for business spending plans, dropped 0.8 percent after slipping 0.1 percent in the previous month.

The mixed report dampened market speculation for an interest rate hike as early as June.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, was down 0.16 percent at 95.202 in late trading.

In late New York trading, the euro rose to 1.1190 dollars from 1.1163 dollars of the previous session, and the British pound decreased to 1.4656 dollars from 1.4715 dollars. The Australian dollar went up to 0.7218 dollars from 0.7201 dollars.

The dollar bought 109.70 Japanese yen, lower than 110.14 yen of the previous session. The dollar fell to 0.9893 Swiss francs from 0.9905 Swiss francs, and it inched down to 1.2984 Canadian dollars from 1.3042 Canadian dollars. Enditem